Change the Way You Lead Change - by David M Herold & Donald B Fedor (Hardcover)

About the Book

A groundbreaking manifesto, this book challenges traditional notions of change, arguing that successful change is the result of careful diagnosis, analysis, and consideration of "what" to change, "who" to change, and the "context" for the change.

Book Synopsis

Change is never a stepwise or easily prescribed process. Rather, it is messy and complicated, and its outcomes are easily swayed by a host of factors. In this context, leaders need to develop and utilize realistic frameworks for organizational change. They need to implement a holistic change model that defines and justifies the proposed change, and takes account of both the abilities of those who will be asked to lead and carry out the change, and the context in which the change is to occur.

To develop such a model, Herold and Fedor examined more than 300 changes and interviewed over 8,000 individuals who lived through them. They then reality-tested their model by bouncing their ideas off hundreds of managers who were living change on a day-to-day basis. Those ideas are collected in this practical book, which will be of use to anyone who is likely to lead change initiatives in almost any organizational environment--from executives, to consultants, to management students.

Review Quotes

"[Herold's] book elaborates on those ideas, looking at each element of the change model in depth, with examples of where companies went wrong by failing to address these factors properly. The authors stress that their model won't help you bat 1,000 in change, but it should increase your batting average, and given how poor most companies fare with change that should be an appealing prospect." --Globe and Mail

"Dr. Herold and Dr. Fedor take a topic that is relevant and challenging to all businesses and distill it down to a practical, common sense approach that is logical and applicable...truly a who, what, when, where, why, & how on adapting to change. Kudos to the authors...a wonderful bookthe model of all models on leading change!" --Gary Jones, Former Managing Director, Donaldson, Lufkin, & Jenrette, Inc.

"Many leaders are good at determining what to change but falter in fully examining how to change, deciding when to change, and assessing the consequences of change. This book emphasizes these key lessons and provides many well tested ideas and tools for managing change. The examples of successful and unsuccessful leaders are vivid reminders of what can happen to strong companies when change is not well managed." --Donna Hyland, CEO, Children's Healthcare of Atlanta

"This book tells the truth about the difficulties in bringing about organizational change. It provides a method for deciding whether entering into a change process is appropriate for your organization, and it outlines what you must consider to carry it out successfully. It is necessary to read this book the moment the thought of change enters your mind." --Walter Reichman, VP Sirota Survey Intelligence, and Professor Emeritus, Baruch College, CUNY

"Unlike other books on change, Change the Way You Lead Change points out the complexities and subtleties required to make meaningful changes in today's business environment. The "Change Framework" model provides a construct for formulating change and monitoring its progress--and demonstrates the skills critical to the success of a change leader. I recommend this book to anyone who may be called upon to act as a change agent." --William H. Anderson, Principal, Prudential Financial

"In a world replete with easy answers and facile slogans, this book recognizes that changing organizations is a complex, difficult business, and offers a practical model and some very useful examples and applications that will help the reader to beat the odds." --Steve Kerr, Senior Advisor, Goldman Sachs and former Head of Training and Development, Goldman Sachs and General Electric

"This book presents a refreshingly realistic viewpoint of organizational change--what it's like, what it takes, how many diverse players are involved--and argues that each change journey has the potential to be unique. What the book is really about is how most observers' mental models (or published models) of organizational change are overly simplistic. I could not agree more with its basic points."--Amy Edmondson, Harvard Business School

About the Author

David M. Herold is Professor Emeritus in the College of Management, Georgia Institute of Technology. Donald B. Fedor is Professor of Organizational Behavior in the College of Management at the Georgia Institute of Technology.